How can I turn off iCloud completely?

Since upgrading to ML on iMac, I also have problems with iCloud. Especially contacts, after I switched iCloud off, contacts vanish, followed by severe horrible thoughts! Phew, back up on remote hard drive. But then I tried turning iCloud on, and wonders, every contact is back.

To cut a long story short, has anyone tried Keksis' method

Quote:

1: Export all contacts from AddressBook (File -> Export… -> Address Book Archive…)

2: Switch off iCloud (-> all contacts are gone)

3: Import all contacts back from the exported file (File -> Import…) unquote.

??

I'm of the age that start distrusting this "new fangled business". I do not want iCloud, yet. I am happy with all my contacts, documents, etc., on my iMac, but, I do understand that others want to be able to access their contacts etc. etc., on other devices. So, for me It doesn't work! I can see the idea behind the application, but some severe thought needs to be done to make it work. And judging by the above posts, that ain't been done, yet.

To my original question, has anyone tried Keksis' method? or should I be a guinea pig and try ?

Cheers.

Thanks to all who have pioneered the wilderness before me.

I use the MoinMoin wiki as a personal information manager (PIM). It's easy-to-use and written in Python so it runs almost everywhere. Because this is my central PIM I want to be able to run it from anywhere: any of my Macs, Windows machines, or Linux boxen. I used to do this with the complete wiki, programs and data, on my MobileMe disk. It worked fine. The Wiki contains data, from daily notes, to notes on people I've met, to copies of reference papers, to code.

I had planned to do the same thing with iCloud. In fact, I came across this Community while hunting for hints on how to do it. After reading this thread, I think I'll change my mind.

As a suggestion for people with a requirement such as mine, DropBox has appeared to work very well. I used it to store my Wiki data for several months. It appears in your finder as a disk. You can use it offline and it will sync when you get back on the Net. There are clients for iOS devices and BlackBerries, although I haven't figured out how to use them productively. The one drawback is that, when you hit the limit, it just dumps all further input. It doesn't give any grace period, not even for a few minutes.

I don't have any experience with either Google's or Amazon's cloud offerings.

So, thank you very much. Losing my data would have been a disaster! I believed you haved saved me from doing it.

THX,

I just went through the same night mare.

Disconnected from iCloud and my calendars were gone.

INSANE! I thought my mac was the main point of plate axes.

but no.

Apple is the center of the universe now.

I followed your steps and back it is, my calendars are back on my mac.

iCloud is dead. Long life iCloud.

ah, i love my dropbox...

If you took the time to understand how iCloud and other online calendar sync services work, you would not think it insane that your calendars disappear when you disconnect from the service.

The calendar on your phone or computer is simply viewing the master calendar stored on the iCloud server. If you disconnect from the server then quite clearly the calendars will no longer be viewable.

It's like disconnecting your television set from the cable box, and then expecting your TV programs to still be viewable.

So I don't use the iCloud for anything. My smartphone and tablet are not Apple products. But apparently my music has somehow been backed up there because after I downloaded the latest version of iTunes (which I use only to organize my music for my classic iPod... guess I'm pretty old school, LOL), a boatload of the songs in my collection have the "download from iCloud" icon. For lots of them, they seem to be duplicates of what I already have in my music lilbrary. So my question is this: if I turn off iCloud, will I lose all the music with the download icon?

I was going to turn on iCloud syncing for Contacts and Calender assuming it would keep my data on the Mac and ipad if I switched off. I turned it on for Notes and was surprised that iCloud created an iCloud folder in Notes and I had to copy all my On My iPad notes to the iCloud folder manually for them to sync to my Mac.

This is what it says on the Macs Help Center:

Turning off services removes information stored in iCloud from your Mac apps. The information remains stored in iCloud and available on your other devices that still have the services turned on. To see your information reappear in your Mac apps, just turn on the services again.

Here’s the effect of turning off each service:

So after reading on the Mac help that it might delete my data if I switch of iCloud I rang Applecare and the person I spoke to said it would still keep your local stuff as when you switch on iCloud it duplicates everything to the cloud.

I googled more and came to this thread which confirmed my suspicions, if you turn off iCloud all your local data will be removed. I find this bizzare, it should at least ask if you want to keep your data. Safari can keep bookmarks so why not all the other apps?

Apple should really make this more clear before people turn on iCloud and then regret it.

The moral of this story is don't trust what Applecare tell you, do your own Googling as well.

My issue is one of privacy. I realize there's no privacy on the net. But at least I'm not going to feed this bane by allowing all my data to be stored on the cloud

I turned it off against the warning that I would lose my data. But I decided to bite the bullet. And, yes, I did lose all my iCal appointments. It was a hit I was willing to take. But now, three months after I did it, now I'm getting a dialog constantly that tells me I need to do something about iCloud. There is no button for "Never show this again." The only options I get is to do what they want or press the "later" button. I see no way to escape the annoyance of having to perpetually see this dialog.

People ask me why I'm still using Leopard on my home machine. Answer: because all this BS isn't built into it. But I have to use Lion at work and this iCloud thing is driving me insane there. I don't want it, and the more they force it down my throat, the more I don't want it.

I thought MobileMe was awesome. I used it every single day without problems. I was in control of it. It served me. iCloud feels more like something that's being done TO me than done FOR me.

That's my 2¢.

Brie-Eating Surrender Monkey wrote:

My issue is one of privacy. I realize there's no privacy on the net. But at least I'm not going to feed this bane by allowing all my data to be stored on the cloud

I turned it off against the warning that I would lose my data. But I decided to bite the bullet. And, yes, I did lose all my iCal appointments. It was a hit I was willing to take.

How needless, why you didn't just back up and restore after switching iCloud off I can't imagine, you would not have lost anything. Don't you backup?

And what exactly is it that this dialog is telling you to do, "something" is hardly informative.

I am with you. I read these threads as a so-so computer user, not geek-dom at all here, and feel helpless to regain control over any of the data icloud appropriated. There may be a way to use it well, but I don't really care. It is super irritating. MOST people are not going to go to these lengths. So what I am stuck with barring hours of headache reading threads and trying to correctly apply remedies is bondage to icloud.

I HATE icloud. How dare they? And market it as innocuous? The arrogance. Seriously.

I want my data back under my control, I want calendars that don't autocorrect to icloud and delete my iphone entries spontaneously. I want all my contact data back and for this stupid program to stop deleting random contacts I enter without me knowing why. And I don't want seven icloud calendars in my outlook on a desktop pc. The rub is, I am really only adept enough to know this problem is bigger than the time I want to commit to figure it out. It makes me seriously want to throw everything apple makes, with the exception of an ipod, in the garbage.

APPLE, CAN YOU HEAR ME? DOES ANYBODY THERE READ THESE THREADS AND TRY TO ACTUALLY HELP THE AVERAGE PERSON INSTEAD OF BECOMING A COMPLETE THORN IN THE SIDE WHILE YOU TRY TO ASSIMILATE MY DIGITAL LIFE LIKE THE BORG? APPLE, YOU STINK.

nah, this is not helping, either.

---

Required Name wrote:

I am with you. I read these threads as a so-so computer user, not geek-dom at all here, and feel helpless to regain control over any of the data icloud appropriated. There may be a way to use it well, but I don't really care. It is super irritating. MOST people are not going to go to these lengths. So what I am stuck with barring hours of headache reading threads and trying to correctly apply remedies is bondage to icloud.

I HATE icloud. How dare they? And market it as innocuous? The arrogance. Seriously.

I want my data back under my control, I want calendars that don't autocorrect to icloud and delete my iphone entries spontaneously. I want all my contact data back and for this stupid program to stop deleting random contacts I enter without me knowing why. And I don't want seven icloud calendars in my outlook on a desktop pc. The rub is, I am really only adept enough to know this problem is bigger than the time I want to commit to figure it out. It makes me seriously want to throw everything apple makes, with the exception of an ipod, in the garbage.

APPLE, CAN YOU HEAR ME? DOES ANYBODY THERE READ THESE THREADS AND TRY TO ACTUALLY HELP THE AVERAGE PERSON INSTEAD OF BECOMING A COMPLETE THORN IN THE SIDE WHILE YOU TRY TO ASSIMILATE MY DIGITAL LIFE LIKE THE BORG? APPLE, YOU STINK.

Backup your data, sign out of iCloud, restore your data. It's not rocket science. If you don't have a way of backing up, and you don't have a backup then that tells me how important your data is to you.

And you're missing the point, we have a home lan maintained by an outside company for home biz purposes. I PAY somebody else to back our systems up, I don't do it. It should not have been pulled from my pc. Don't patronize me. I did not load contact data on icloud, it appropriated it.

The point is, if icloud doesn't work such that these threads even EXIST, then icloud should fix it. NOT ME.

I buy their products and expect them to service them according to my capabilities.

Let's totally change the subject for a second. IF the airlines had BOTHERED to make the cabin secure, would there have been a 9-11? It's the airlines' job to secure the plane for passengers and everyone else. Terrorism wasn't new. And it isn't my job to build the plane or to troubleshoot for their design flaw.

I am not going to apologize for not wanting to learn every detail, I have better things to do with my time. That's why I pay them. And most people are like me. Apple should be anticipating THAT. IT'S THEIR JOB to make it as simple as they make it sound.

Oh and not to neglect the obvious...icloud was supposed to BE the backup. I didn't ask you to fix me, i am asking apple to fix icloud instead of leaving it up to us.

Required Name wrote:

It should not have been pulled from my pc. Don't patronize me. I did not load contact data on icloud, it appropriated it.

Only because you enabled iCloud.

Unless you gave your iTunesID and password to this outside company and they enabled it on your computer.

APPLE, CAN YOU HEAR ME? DOES ANYBODY THERE READ THESE THREADS

No one from Apple responds here.

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